After years of reading and benefit from tips on your site, I think it´s payback time by posting a comment about something I maybe know a litte bit more about than you :-)
My best tip, especially if you´re a person with a bit of technical interest and patience, is to use MediaPortal (http://www.team-mediaportal.com/) on a "HTPC".
My setup, thats been working very well for years now, is like this:
- A dedicated media pc/server ("HTPC"), built for low energy consumption and silence. Motherboard with integrated CPU och graphics. Windows 7. This could as well be any ordinary pc with Windows.
- Integrated DVD-player (and/or a BlueRay player)
- TV-card(s), in my case a Fire-DTV box, but could be any TV-card supported by MediaPortal (most of them are). MediaPortal supports as many TV-cards as you like.
- Disks to store films, music, TV shows, photos etc. on. In my case I have the disks attached to the pc/server, but could be a NAS as well, or both.
After a litle configuration of MediaPortal (with latest releases its quite simple really), you get:
- Watch, record/pause live TV
- Instant access to stored recordings, ripped DVDs, movies, music, radio etc.
- Install MediaPortal client on other computers on your network to access same functionality on them, like s watch streaming TV from server, start recordings, watch movies on server etc.
- Endless ways to enrich MediaPortal with skins and plugins, for example to control the server from a mobile device. I use my HTC to start recordings and watch TV schedules and as a full featured remote!
MediaPortal is under constant development by a very dedicated community and lead developers.
I think it is the best solution today to get it "all in one box".
Hi Jake,
After years of reading and benefit from tips on your site, I think it´s payback time by posting a comment about something I maybe know a litte bit more about than you :-)
My best tip, especially if you´re a person with a bit of technical interest and patience, is to use MediaPortal (http://www.team-mediaportal.com/) on a "HTPC".
My setup, thats been working very well for years now, is like this:
- A dedicated media pc/server ("HTPC"), built for low energy consumption and silence. Motherboard with integrated CPU och graphics. Windows 7. This could as well be any ordinary pc with Windows.
- Integrated DVD-player (and/or a BlueRay player)
- TV-card(s), in my case a Fire-DTV box, but could be any TV-card supported by MediaPortal (most of them are). MediaPortal supports as many TV-cards as you like.
- Install MediaPortal (it´s completely free software!)
- Disks to store films, music, TV shows, photos etc. on. In my case I have the disks attached to the pc/server, but could be a NAS as well, or both.
After a litle configuration of MediaPortal (with latest releases its quite simple really), you get:
- Watch, record/pause live TV
- Instant access to stored recordings, ripped DVDs, movies, music, radio etc.
- Install MediaPortal client on other computers on your network to access same functionality on them, like s watch streaming TV from server, start recordings, watch movies on server etc.
- Endless ways to enrich MediaPortal with skins and plugins, for example to control the server from a mobile device. I use my HTC to start recordings and watch TV schedules and as a full featured remote!
MediaPortal is under constant development by a very dedicated community and lead developers.
I think it is the best solution today to get it "all in one box".
Good Luck!